Analyse the relationship between Lally and Doris in chapters 8-10 of 'Vernon God Little'

son. ‘I can take out another loan’ shows that Doris can be sordidly mislead by a deceptive man such as Lally, who can make a woman of easy virtue fall for his prey. Lally spends the money from the reports on Doris’s son, on ‘new timberlands’, which shows how he doesn’t need the money for things of significance – he wants materialistic things and will stop at nothing to annoy Vernon.  The relationship between Lally and Doris is one built on the foundations of the benefits Lally can get from her son who’s a convicted murderer – Vernon is completely pushed out of the picture when Lally comes along. Vernon even questions how sudden their relationship is, ‘nobody will ask why Lally’s suddenly dicken my ma’, which appeals to us as a reader because we’re wondering the same thing as what’s racing through Vernon’s mind. The seriousness of their relationship in such as small amount of time is exemplified further, ‘Lally strides into the kitchen like he owns the place’, which portrays how Lally thinks he is the new man of the house, again pushing Vernon out of the picture.   Lally presents himself as a reasonable man who cares for Doris. ‘Babe, after they screwed you around for so long’ ostensibly implies that he wants what’s best for Doris and doesn’t want her to get hurt. However, we discover that Lally cancels the delivery of Doris’s long awaited fridge, which suggests that he is trying to make something go wrong so that he can step in and be the hero, and just to stir up some trouble.   Lally desperately tries to convince Doris that Vernon is a liar and that something is wrong with him. ‘The boy needs urgent help’ conveys that Lally is trying to turn Doris against her own son - something he knows she is likely to do because she’s smitten with him. ‘It’s time to turn this boy over to someone who can help’ shows that Lally is trying to backstab Vernon but in a disguised way – he makes out he’s doing what he does for the good of Vernon, when really, it’s only to get a dig at him.   As a reader we speculate and wonder how Lally knows so much. ‘Remind me to call Dr Goosens’ shows to me that Lally is an underdog, who digs the dirt on others to force them into pacified silence. Lally was not supposed to know about Vernon’s psychiatric appointment, and this concept of manipulation continues. ‘You are under a psychiatric order, after all. He pauses to chuckle, to reminisce’. This makes me feel sympathetic for Vernon because he’s being subdued by a spiteful man who wants nothing but hurt for Vernon. Lally also metaphorically digs the knife in deeper, ‘Leaning past me to whisper, “Thanks for the story”’. This portrays Lally as a character with evil motives, who uses his relationship with Doris to get at Vernon.   Lally undertakes this business of ‘rental care’, in which he has got himself deep in trouble, and so tries to avoid it when Vernon attempts to drop him in danger. The truth surfaces when Vernon finds out that ‘that’s right, - “care” – I had the cards printed for Lalo’, showing that Lally is the one who has left these people, and his own mother, with nothing. Lally continues his fakery when the story is surfaced, making up an excuse and ‘he pauses to dab a finger at the corner of his eye’, suggesting his actions are counterfeit and mean nothing, and he’s using Doris to gain money.    Lally’s tone with Doris is artificial and fake. ‘Well Hi baby’ shows that the idiolect of Lally when speaking with Doris is tasteless and insipid, implying that Lally is a trite man yet Doris still can’t see this. ‘I see a love poem from Lally to mom’ shows that the love and bond Doris and Lally share is tacky and a waste of time – there is nothing there except the hold Lally has over Doris. Lally describes Doris in a way which satisfies her appetite for a perfect image, ‘hot and sweet, like my woman’, and so this makes Doris happy that she ostensibly appears to be this enviable woman Lally is describing her as. Vernon describes their relationship in a way to make it seem vulgar, ‘cozies back into Lally’s arms’, and as a reader this makes me squirm and empathise with Vernon for having to witness this.   Doris is completely oblivious to what’s happening in front of her because Lally has blinded her with love. ‘Don’t tell your nana, but I had to raid the lawnmowing fund to help Lally’, shows that Doris cares for Lally much more than her own son, which conveys the hold Lally has over her. Lally does not help Doris find her values, ‘after what he did to you? What about what you did to me?’, implying the lack of compassion she has towards Vernon. This shows that Doris doesn’t care about what Lally might have done to Vernon, she’s more interested in backstabbing Vernon by surfacing issues about the trouble he’s caused – despite most of it having been heightened by Lally’s presence.   Doris assumes that everybody wants her new man. ‘Oh baby, you’re jealous’ shows that she thinks everyone is out to get her new catch, even though others, including Vernon, don’t want him because they can see him for what he’s worth. It also conveys that Doris thinks Vernon is trying to split them up, which she thinks is because Vernon doesn’t like Lally because he’s trying to replace his father, which although may be true to a certain extent, is not the real source of his hatred for Lally.   Doris is left in the complete unknown once she starts seeing Lally, ‘a woman knows these things’ suggests Doris has been deceived because the irony of the situation is that in reality, she knows nothing about Lally’s motives or aspirations. Doris allows Lally to call her by a different name, ‘I couldn’t decide between Vanessa or Rebecca’, supporting the idea that Lally is fake, and Doris is happy to go along with it because she feels wanted by Lally, even though he’s trying to make her into something she’s not.   The idea that the relationship between them is very fast, is again exemplified by Vernon’s interior monologue. ‘Well, i’m not even dressed’, implies that Doris and Lally’s relationship has reached new levels. ‘Shush Lally is sleeping’ conveys that Doris is considerate towards Lally, although in reality he doesn’t care for her. Even when Lally threatens to walk out when his hidden situation is jeopardised, Doris practically begs for him to stay. ‘But we can disconnect the phone, change the number...Lalito? You can’t walk out on a whole month of bliss’. This suggests that she will do anything in her power to make Lally stay, because she thinks that he’s the one person who truly loves her. She even criticises Vernon, expressing that he could give out Lally’s number even when at Leona’s – she is desperate for this man to stay, but really, he doesn’t care because he has no real ties to her. This also shows how oblivious she is, because ‘one whole month of bliss’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Her son is a convicted murderer and the person she loves is trying to frame him and get him in more trouble – the irony being that it’s the complete opposite of bliss.   Vernon perceives Lally in a very negative way because of how he treats his mother and how he’s out to get Vernon. ‘The reason steps into the hallway’ implies that Vernon blames Lally for every misfortune which continues to hunt down Vernon, which is true because Vernon has Lally figured out. Vernon describes Lally as his ‘cock flapping all over the place’, suggesting that he is a man of easy virtue, but it also belittles Lally because he describes it as needing an ‘electron microscope’ to see it.   Lally makes Vernon very angry when he’s being manipulative and sly. ‘I fill with acid blood’ suggests that Vernon is fuming and livid as Lally is attempting to exaggerate the wrong that Vernon has done. ‘A person bailed for murder would do better too..’ shows how Lally is becoming involved in things which don’t concern him, simply because he’s supposedly in love with his mother.   When in a relationship with Lally, Doris turns into a fake representation of somebody she isn’t. ‘An alien scent drags behind her’ conveys how she’s pretending to be someone she’s not – somebody Vernon doesn’t know. Doris is also more revealing when with Lally. ‘Filmy pink robe’ suggests she’s not as modest when around Lally, in that he has turned her into a Jezebel. ‘My ole lady was never honey bear like this with my daddy’ shows that the sight of Lally and Doris together sickens Vernon, because she never treated his father like how she’s treating this new man who’s just flounced into their lives. ‘Mom throws her head back and laughs’ further suggests that all of this is fake, because she’s trying to present an illusion of being happy and will hold onto anything, i.e.: Lally, who supports this image.   To conclude, the relationship between Lally and Doris is one formed from the way in which he can embezzle benefits from being with Doris, in return satisfying her need for a perfect image and the want to be loved. Pierre conveys this in many ways, namely the tone of language between Doris and Lally, which is full of artificialities and tasteless affection. Lally is portrayed as manipulative but also as a coward, and Doris is expressed to be a character that is oblivious to the scam of Lally, also rendering her to have an aspect of artificiality. If we consider Vernon’s interior monologue, we can also discover the contempt and disregard he has for Lally because he has him figured out and knows he’s out to get him and his mother. Conclusively, all of this results in Vernon being metaphorically stabbed in the back from both Lally and his own mother, yet again.